New year, new you? On resolutions and getting over cognitive barriers to get shit done

By Leyla Acaroglu 

How many of us kick start a new year with a list of resolutions or actions, or even just ideas to make changes and finally get our shit together?

It's such a nice opportunity, the ticking over of a new year, and in this case a new decade, to take action on all the changes we have floating around at the back of our minds. Quite the job we hate —  start exercising, clean up the mess in the back room, change careers, volunteer more, start a new hobby, become a vegan, or in my case, every year for the last five years it has been, “Write the book.” Yes, it's hard to admit, but that has been my New Year's resolution for five solid years and, no, there is no completed book yet (although it's happening and I do have a new handbook coming out early this year! My 5th in 5 years, so I clearly have a complicated relationship with writing). 

Why do we all seem to have this innate desire to make changes when the year changes? It’s possibly because humans actually really enjoy a bit of healthy disruption, and the collective release of the old year allows for a really clear demarcation from the old to the new. The birth of a new year offers space for reflection and agenda setting that many other busy moments throughout the year just don’t allow us to catch. And of course, we also have all that ‘free time’ over the holidays to think and ponder and plan...

There is a growing body of research around how humans accept disruptions and adopt new behaviors at certain times in their lives. When I was researching sustainable lifestyle changes for the Anatomy of Action initiative, our collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme, I uncovered some fascinating things about social norms and personal behavior disruptions that may help you get a grip on your New Year's resolutions.

Understanding Social Norms

Social norms are the unwritten rules of what is/isn’t deemed ‘acceptable’ in any given society. They are pervasive and often implicated in influencing how we act, especially when around others. They are regulated by shaming those that don’t conform to them, and rewarding those that do.  In the context of everyday life, social norms subtly influence the decisions and choices we make each day. 

Norms, like so many other things in life, are in constant flux, so they require constant check-ins and recalibration to the evolving practice of everyday life. It would be exhausting if we had to consciously check in with all the appropriate social practices of our communities, so the human brain does a lot of this social norm calibration subconsciously by mirroring the behaviors of others around us. 

There are two prominent sociologists who have contributed to the understanding of how social norms influence us — Anthony Giddens’ Structuration Theory (1991) and Elizabeth Shove’s Social Practice Theory (2012). Both speak to the notion that change occurs when agents within a system are enabled to alter their everyday practices.

So, we don’t have our behaviors changed by others, but instead we are changed by the structural forces and interactions in our daily lives with the output of others actions. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation, meaning that it's hard to determine who is the first to make a shift in the status quo that then catches on and becomes a new social norm.

What we do know is that comparing our own practices against those of others affects what we do - or don't do.

There was a study in 2008 that demonstrated this; it looked at what would motivate people to opt into reusing their towel in a hotel. Goldstein and fellow researchers tried out a few approaches to socially normative messages to the inhabitants of a hotel room, ranging from, “The majority of guests reuse their towels,” to,  “The majority of guests in this room reuse their towels.”

The latter was way more successful in influencing people to opt to reuse their towel. Why? Because the desired behavior (of towel reuse) was seeded with a marker of social location-specific behavior to plant the normative expectation.

Basically because it said IN THIS ROOM, it made people even more aware of the social cue of reuse being specific to that space they were in, so the norm was set and people complied. The researchers go on to point out that, “A wide variety of research shows that the behavior of others in the social environment shapes individuals' interpretations of, and responses to, the situation.” 

It’s not new to us that we humans respond to cues in our environment, but how does this apply to something like a New Year's resolution? Do you think you would make a commitment to doing something differently if nobody else was doing it? I am one of those people who pride myself on being a bit different, so whilst I don’t write a list and share it with others as that would be way too obvious, I do totally make a mental mark at the turning of the new year to accomplish certain goals in that year. Knowing how social norms affect you and using these to your own motivational advantage could help you stick to your goals and make those positive changes contagious.

Overcoming Cognitive Dissonance 

The gap between what we say we will do and what we actually do is referred to as cognitive dissonance, a prevalent aspect when considering any form of behavioral economics. Research has found that simply caring about something does not mean that someone will alter behaviors towards it. Once we are made aware of a gap between what we think and what we do, we are more likely to change our opinions rather than our actions. 

The reality is that we often benefit from ignoring ourselves and behaving in other, more habitual ways, even if we are totally aligned with one value, we can still end up doing something completely opposite to it! Barkan and colleagues (2015) call this ‘ethical dissonance,’ which they say “arises from the inconsistency between the aspiration to uphold a moral self-image and the temptation to profit from unethical behavior.” When confronted with this, people often find ways to redefine their unethical behaviors as ‘non’-violations based on pre-violation justifications — like when you know that the cheap chocolate is unethically produced but you are able to rationalize purchasing it, just this once. 

Basically, we are all very good at messing with ourselves. So you need to find a way of reducing and identifying the dissonance so that you can stay on track with your goals.

Disrupting Everyday Habits 

The good news is that we can mess with ourselves and disrupt our own everyday habits by engaging with new experiences. Swapping from an existing one to a new option in an environment that reinforces the positive benefits, or when we are already experiencing dramatic changes, can all help us overcome inertia. A study by Fuji and colleagues from 2001 found that people were more likely to alter the way they commuted to work when they were forced by a temporary freeway closure to pick between a shorter train trip or larger drive. Many people who tried out the train then continued taking the train after the freeway reopened but they needed a disruption to force the new behavior to start.

This ‘habit discontinuity hypothesis’ states that habit-changing interventions are more likely to be effective when they are delivered during life changes (Verplanken and Roy, 2016), like when we move houses, go on vacation, or have a baby. Likewise, interventions that allow for habit swaps and new behaviors to be tried out are often more successful when the environment in which the habit is performed is altered (Carden & Wood 2018). So, as you start the new year, when we are more than likely on vacation mode, you have the space to start a different routine, this is the perfect time for your brain to offer you the commitment ceremony of New Year's resolutions to actions.

The challenge now is: how do you mess with your own mind enough to ensure you stick to them? 

When we developed the Anatomy of Action, our goal was to find a series of tangible, practical and achievable everyday lifestyle swaps that anyone anywhere could start to adopt to integrate sustainability into their everyday lives. We looked at many of the growing movements that are already happening, from zero waste living through to protein swapping.

There are 5 main lifestyle areas that we all engage in that we offer 3 swaps for each, and then there is also a further detailed list of actions you can take. In total, there are over 65 actions! So, if you are looking for some planet positive actions to start disrupting your life a little bit with, then head on over to the website. Check them out, and get started with your sustainable lifestyle hacks in 2020! 

References 

Gifford, R.D. and Chen, A.K., 2017. Why aren’t we taking action? Psychological barriers to climate-positive food choices. Climatic change, 140(2), pp.165-178.

McDonald, S., Oates, C.J., Thyne, M., Timmis, A.J. and Carlile, C., 2015. Flying in the face of environmental concern: why green consumers continue to fly. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(13-14), pp.1503-1528.

Barkan, R., Ayal, S. and Ariely, D., 2015. Ethical dissonance, justifications, and moral behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 6(DEC), pp.157-161.

Giddens, A., 1991. Structuration theory. Past, Present and Future. In: Bryant, C. and Jary, D.(eds.). Giddens’ Theory of Structuration. A Critical Appreciation. London: Routledge.

Goldstein, N.J., Cialdini, R.B. and Griskevicius, V., 2008. A room with a viewpoint: Using social norms to motivate environmental conservation in hotels. Journal of consumer Research, 35(3), pp.472-482. 

Shove, E., Pantzar, M. and Watson, M., 2012. The dynamics of social practice: Everyday life and how it changes. Sage.

Fujii, S., Gärling, T. and Kitamura, R., 2001. Changes in drivers’ perceptions and use of public transport during a freeway closure: Effects of temporary structural change on cooperation in a real-life social dilemma. Environment and Behavior, 33(6), pp.796-808.

Verplanken, &  Roy., 2016. Empowering interventions to promote sustainable lifestyles: Testing the habit discontinuity hypothesis in a field experiment. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 45, pp.127-134.

Carden, L. and Wood, W., 2018. Habit formation and change. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 20, pp.117-122.

Lally, P. and Gardner, B., 2013. Promoting habit formation. Health Psychology Review, 7(sup1), pp.S137-S158.

The Three Pillars of UnSchool’s Philosophy: Systems, Sustainability and Design

If you’ve been keeping up with our work at The UnSchool, then you already know that we are all about activating systems change for a sustainable future by design. We work with people of all professional and personal backgrounds to support the rapid transition to being an activated creative changemaker. 

Our approach is deeply rooted in a philosophy of systems, sustainability, and design, forming three knowledge pillars that hold up all that we do. All of our programs, projects, and practices have systems thinking, sustainability sciences, and creative design solutions at the heart. These three pillars wraps up into the Disruptive Design Method, which is a scaffolding that enables people to think and do differently when it comes to understanding and working to help solve complex problems. In fact, we LOVE problems and embrace chaos and complexity at the UnSchool, helping others do the same!

In this week’s journal, we are exploring in more detail our three pillars of Systems, Sustainability, and Design. 

SYSTEMS 

The world is made up of complex, interconnected, and interdependent systems, starting with the most important life-sustaining systems of all, the ecological system, Planet Earth, which is made up of the billions of individual yet interconnected parts that form the magical whole that we are all a part of. Earth's natural systems provide every single living thing with the resources needed to exist, and thus, it is in our fundamental needs to create things that meet our needs within the opportunities and limitations of Earth. 

We live within a set of complex social systems that subtly govern human society, from education to government and everything in between. Social systems are emergent outcomes of our collective desires for success as a species. Social systems breed the human-created industrial systems that work tirelessly to manufacture the needs of our desires, and yet so many of us are oblivious to how they work and what impacts they have. It's often at the point of these systems intersecting with nature, where we mine resources to obtain the raw materials required to make all the products we use, that we see many of our environmental and social problems evolve. The industrial system brings all the wonderful tools of modernity at the expense of the natural systems that we all need.  

Understanding and working within the multi-level perspectives that systems thinking enables is fundamental not only for making change, but also for being an active participant in the world and the design of a future we all want to live in.  We use systems mapping and life cycle mapping to explore these connections, and one of the key tools we use for this is the three systems at play map (see above). This particular map helps people identify the types of systems that we humans have designed, as well as how they connect to the industrial systems we have created to meet our social needs. Mapping connections here demonstrates the reliance and destruction of the ecological systems that sustain the rest of the systems. 

Within the Disruptive Design Methodology knowledge set, there are several systems-based classes: Systems Thinking; Language, Influence, and Effect; and Systems Interventions.  

SUSTAINABILITY 

The ability to sustain life on Earth requires us to work within both the systems that nature evolved as well as the human-formed systems of society and industry. We all rely on natural systems for survival, which means that the imperative to enact sustainability is within all of us. No one can opt out of breathing, consuming nutrient-dense food, or drinking H20, so we are all implicated in figuring out how humanity can be a regenerative force on this shared planet, rather than continuing to extract and exploit the natural systems that sustain us. 

The fundamental quest of our time is to figure out how to transform our global economy and society from a linear one based on value loss and waste creation to a circular economy built on regeneration, sustainability, and value-gaining systems. The knowledge and power we have acquired through the industrial and technical revolutions have formed the tension between nature and our human needs, but now we can transition to meeting our needs within the boundaries and systems of nature, if of course, we have the tools to understand, participate, and contribute back more than we take. That is the essence of the sustainability concept, doing more with less, and understanding how the planet works so that we can participate within its means and evolve from an extraction-based society to a regenerative one. 

At the UnSchool, we embed sustainability into everything that we do, from  post-disposable considerations in all our programs and our food philosophy through to our new farm-based rural regeneration campus. We don’t get everything right, but we are on a constant journey of figuring out how to do things in a more sustainable way; for example, we are currently exploring our digital footprint and developing a zero waste digital communication strategy as we recently discovered just how much of an impact each video watched and email sent has on our carbon emissions. 

Learn more about sustainable practices in our Sustainability and Sustainable Design & Production courses. 

DESIGN 

Design is a powerful silent social scripture that surrounds us at all times; it influences our lives from the moment we are born until the day we die. Everything, absolutely everything that we encounter in our day-to-day interactions with the world is by design, and thus can be re-designed to meet our needs in more elegant, sustainable, and sophisticated ways. That’s why we have the Disruptive Design Method as a tool to support anyone being able to contribute to designing a future that works better than today!

To form usable goods and provide services, design takes all the materials and resources it needs from nature. Therefore, every action we take has an impact on the natural world, so designing better products, services, and systems is one of the critical tools for bringing about a circular, sustainable, and regenerative future. 

Our current global condition of designing for disposability, overexploiting and undervaluing the raw materials and formed goods created in this industrial system perpetuates the unsustainability of our species, but through circular systems design, we can turn the tides on this trend. From this foundational perspective of design, we can approach the needs and reconfigure value to work within the natural systems that are required to sustain life on Earth, designing goods and services that not only meet human needs and desires in beautiful ways, but also add value back to the system that gives us all life, and support environmental regeneration. 

The Three Pillars, Combined

The combination of these three pillars make up the foundational tools for thinking and doing differently, for understanding complexity, and for developing the propositions for a better future by design. With systems, sustainability, and design at our core, we design systems of learning and positive impact that maximize social, economic, and environmental sustainability through the understanding of the complex interconnected systems at play in the world around us. This enables us to design experiences that maximize positive change. 

We translate these into all sorts of different things, reconfiguring our content and unique tools into learning systems like the Circular Classroom, our Fellowship Programs, and even our Living Learning Lab in Portugal. The beauty of having integrity-based models like this is that they hold regardless of the difficulties that you face, and for us at the UnSchool, our goal is to activate and equip people with the tools they need to agentize themselves to make more positive change in the world. 

Agency is the outcome of learning applicable tools that you can activate in your world, and the one thing we need more of is people willing to take action to solve the complex problems we all face. If you are keen to make change, you don’t need to come to the UnSchool to do so, all you need to do is get started! But if you want to get the tools to make change, understand how to design positive interventions an be a force for good, then we have you covered at the UnSchool!

One Person Can't Save the World, but Everyone Can Change It

By Leyla Acaroglu

Our lives are made up of actions that come about as a result of choices that we often make based on the available information we have on hand.

So when someone sees a tsunami of problems presented to them day in day out by the mainstream and now social media, it's easy to assume that these issues are disconnected to us, that poverty or environmental problems are the outcome of poor policy decisions, or even someone else's bad choices.

From a young age we are taught cause and effect; we intuitively know that every choice has ramifications. If you turn on a tap to get water, it only flows because there is an entire system that has been set up to enable it to do so. This is made painfully obvious when, for whatever reason, the water doesn't flow. Say you forget to pay your water bill, or a pipe bursts due to traffic work somewhere down the street, and suddenly you are confronted with a system impact that is an immediate loss of something that you are used to being always available to you. There are actions you can take to remedy this situation, like calling the water company or paying your bill if you have the means to do so. But, when it comes to bigger issues outside of your immediate control, the actions an individual can take to remedy the situation are less obvious and often far from the mind's ability to contribute constructively — so it chooses to avoid the issue instead.

We live on a planet that is intrinsically interconnected; we breathe in the byproduct of photosynthesis, which in turn oxygenates our blood and allows us to breathe out carbon to contribute to the cycle continuing. Each one of us, no matter how big or small our sphere of influence is, has an impact on the world around us. Everything we use, say, do — it all has the potential to unintentionally cause a negative impact or intentionally have a positive one, and that is why being equipped with the tools for making systems change is so fundamental in overcoming the reductive avoidance that so many people opt into.

Know it or not, our lives are marked by change — changes that we can’t avoid.

For example, age: each birthday, the age we define ourselves by goes up by one.

• Hair: it grows, goes gray, is lost, and in some cases, grows in very odd places.

• Weather: it gets colder, hotter, and even more so nowadays, it's getting weirder.

• Life aspirations: if you followed the dreams of your five year old self, you may be a miniature dragon doctor now.  

• Opinions: every other day they should change.

• Days: like seven times a week they change.

• Lovers: insert your time frame here _____, but what we love changes over time as we grow and evolve as humans.

Change is the one constant in life (thanks Heraclitus for this great quote). We are all changing constantly, and the world we interact day in day out, changes us.

It’s less often that you are saving things. Like maybe you saved a baby from a burning building in your dreams (or in real life if you are a firefighter perhaps?), or you may have recently saved a breakable item from smashing on the floor. You may even be one of those people who is good at saving money. But changing is way more common than saving, so let's get this straight. YOU, yes you, you change the world every single day that you are alive, and in turn, the world changes you. You are in an interdependent relationship with a bunch of systems and hidden processes that you may not have any idea about, and together, we are going to uncover what they are, how they work, and why you can help change them by activating your creative capacity and leadership so that you can contribute to helping the world works better for all of us.

The saying “change is hard” is often used as an excuse for not taking action or deflecting responsibility to other parts of the system. But everything worth doing requires work, and if the systems changes needed were easy, then they would have been done already. Easy solutions to complex problems often lead right back into the problem —  that's one of the basic tenets of a systems mindset, and one of the core things we teach at the UnSchool.

You can't make change unless you know what needs to be changed. Just like you don't know what you don't know until you discover that you don't know it!

I started the UnSchool to help people like you. It’s all about providing tools to help redesign the world through creative systems change. I know that it's not possible for any one person to suddenly save the entire world, and nor should be the responsibility for anyone to do so, but it is certainly the case that every single person can change it. In fact, the world does not need ‘saving’ — it is us humans that need a salvation, given the hyper-consumption fueled constant-growth mindset that has permeated modern societies at the expense of the systems that sustain us and the values that maintain our species’ success!

The power to make change lies in our personal ability to see our own agency and opportunity for for creative leadership and to then make intentional choices about how we will activate the influence we organically have on the world around us, while working on enhancing this to a point where we can actively make more positive systems change.  

One of the reasons I started the UnSchool almost five years ago, was to connect and encourage a global community of rebellious creatives willing to activate their agency for sustainable and regenerative future. It’s for all the people who are deeply passionate about contributing to changing the way we humans treat and interact with the world, so that we offer back more then we take.

All the tools and resources that I create are intended to support people agentizing themselves to be positively disruptive change-makers, rather than passive observers, participants, or even complainers of the status quo.

Developing healthy critical thinking, reflexivity, a systems mindset, and a problem-loving attitude are all fundamentals to increasing your capacity to take action and to contribute to needed systems change. To be able to see the relationships between things that occur provides the foundations for moving from blame to understanding, which in turn supports the development of a problem-loving mindset.

Over the last 15 years of working in sustainability and cultural change, I have met way too many people who say that they are trying to solve problems when, in fact, they are reinforcing them by not choosing to understand the relationships and hidden aspects that make them exist to begin with. This reductive linear thinking plagues decision making and is one of the fundamental reasons that problem solving needs systems thinking.

I made a choice to dedicate my career to figuring out how to contribute to effective positive change and how to overcome the reductive mindset that disempowers and disables, while being a problem lover, systems explorer, and supporter of regenerative and sustainable change. To further support changemakers developing their own learning journeys and discoveries. That’s why I am so proud and excited to share the new certification systems (UnSchool style) that we have developed. The three advanced learning UnSchool systems are self-directed learning journeys into activating positive change, as a Practitioner, UnMasters or Educator.

Of course you don't need to come to the UnSchool to make change! But if you want the support and want to become more agentized around creative leadership, systems, sustainability, and design, then we have short or long-form classes for you to help change and not save the beautiful planet we all share!